I dislike treasure.

But I love loot.

What do I mean? Simple. When I play games, whether D&D or video games, I love to “power up.” I love the feeling of glee that comes from picking up a new shiny sword, or a suit of armor that is both light and sturdy. Give me a bow I can fire from behind trees and hit a dragon between the eyes and I’m a happy camper.

So why do I dislike treasure? Well, I don’t like the distribution, particularly in 4E. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of parcels is great. I just still don’t like it. First of all, there is the possibility that a player can go the entire first two levels of the game and only wind up finding a level 3 sword at the very end of level 2. Granted, that would be a lousy move by the DM, but still, it’s within the design of the system. Second, I don’t feel like spending ridiculous amounts of time picking equipment that the players are going to react to with “Oh. Okay. We’ll sell this when we get back to town.”

When I took over DMing for my group back in November ’09 one of the first things I said was that I was changing the treasure system. At that point I’d been playing Dragon Age from Bioware on XBox for a while, and had experienced its rune system. Now, I’m generally not a crafting fan in video games, since to me, it’s generally a time waster. In a tabletop game though, it’s easy enough to not spend any time on.

I developed a system that combines the group receiving gold and what I referred to as “residuum points.” Basically, they earned gold or found it on the person of slain enemies. At the same time, they were able to break down equipment they salvaged off those enemies (belt buckles, sturdy sword hilts with poor blades, quality leather straps, etc.) that results in “residuum points.” Those RP later being available when they found a proper workbench to construct new items or “upgrade” the ones they had from the myriad pieces. I viewed this as being along the same lines as Dragon Age’s rune crafting system while simultaneously fighting the “we strip the goblins naked so we can sell everything down to their boots in town” syndrome.

It works. My players enjoy deciding exactly what they “receive” since they can use a combination of the residuum plus gold pieces to buy enough supplies to construct their own equipment. I gave them all the ability to do the “Craft Magic Item” ritual for free.

A couple of months ago I saw another solution on ENWorld where a DM gives his players their expected gold at the end of each level in addition to one magic item of their choice of level +1. I liked that idea, and compared to my system, the group would reap better rewards. The problem proved to be twofold with this system though:

1. They weren’t getting any rewards while adventuring. XP isn’t enough to satisfy players after a fight. Players want rewards, even if they can’t spend or use them immediately.
2. It still leaves the group underpowered from what the 4E system expects.

Very recently though, I changed it all again. I went back to my first system, but I’m boosting the residuum they’ll receive to the combined value of L+1, L+2, L+3, L+4 items, divided by 5 each. There is also the condition that no one can “purchase” an item of higher than level+4. I’m trying to find that sweet spot where the party has the stats the system expects, but without the feeling of any one player having less than any other.

I hope this system works out. I’m tired of fiddling with it.

Be Damned!

I’ve seen quite a bit of chatter around the algorewebs about cursed items in 4E D&D. Or rather, the lack thereof.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of cursed items. At least not in terms of “You pick up the sword and you are immediately possessed by it. It gives you -2 to hit, and you cannot release it without the use of a remove curse spell” that was present in previous editions.

When I presented my third iteration of a treasure system change, one of my players misunderstood my intentions. I called for the group to give me more story background to their weapons in return for more residuum awards. He understood what I wrote to mean that if he came up with a cool story that I would allow him to create new item powers, rather than the ones listed in print products.

My first instinct, and my immediate response was “Oh no! No way! You’ll be running around with a +25 Holy Avenger of Every Elemental Damage and Destruction!” My intention was to force them to get more into the storytelling, rather than just letting them build nukes that they carry on their hips. They would clearly rather have The Football in their arsenal.

But then I saw @gamefiend mention on Twitter that he was working on cursed items, and from what I understood, he was saying he is creating items that give benefits, but with problems as well.

I like this idea. What I’ve told my players is that they may present to me new powers/abilities to apply to their gear. They must give me a detailed background story, and both positive and negative effects for the item. For example, they may “discover” an ancient suit of armor used by the dwarven hero Argould Stonebreaker. Argould insisted on being at the forefront of every battle, however, he was slow compared to his fellows. His bravery earned him the respect of his thane, who commisioned a suit of armor to be constructed for Argould that provided the dwarf with extra quickness (+2 to speed.) As with anything, the universe requires balance, and in return for the increase in speed, whenever that boost is used, the wearer is less aware of his/her surroundings and therfore gives combat advantage to all enemies until the end of his/her next turn.

That’s an overly simple example, but illustrative of what I want my players to come up with. I’ve made it clear that I want BIG stories, and the better the background story, the more likely I’ll be to accept more powerful abilities. I’ve also made very clear that this is very experimental. I’m not looking to break the game, but this seems like a very good opportunity to:

1. Get my players more involved in storytelling, rather than smash-n-bash
2. Not have to say “no” to a player’s idea (even if it was a result of misunderstanding)

I actually also plan on creating artifacts with “curses” as well, but for now, this seems like a good way to test the “cursed” waters. What do you think about my treasure system? My approach to cursed items? Talk back to me below.